Michael Pollan wrote extensively in The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World about Monsanto’s New Leaf genetically engineered potatoes that generate their own BT insecticide. He left out two key facts.
It make me wonder if Monsanto somehow corrupted Mr. Pollan and his poet’s soul.
- Every part of the New Leaf plant is always saturated in BT. Yet, when you spray BT, you only apply it when it is needed, and you don’t apply it near harvest.
- Pollan listed the horrifying list of pesticides applied in sequence to ordinary potatoes to control a dozen different pests. One of the pesticides is so toxic no one can even enter the field for 8 days. He then compared that horrible soup with the allegedly pesticide-free New Leaf. But the New Leaf built-in BT handles only one of the pests, the Colorado potato beetle.
~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)